The Day I Made My Children Watch She-Ra

I am super-de-duper excited! And it’s not because I am playing with my Christmas presents (A new pan—thanks hon.) or because the New Year is approaching and I’ll be making a new list of resolutions I have absolutely no intentions of keeping.

(Well, okay, I DO intend to watch every episode of Lost, Chuck, and The Office) (“What a way to reach out and achieve your goals, girl! Go Camryn! Go Camryn!”) Well, the fortune cookie I opened a month ago did say, “Trust your intuition. The universe is guiding your life.” and the next one that immediately followed said, “It doesn't matter. Who is without a flaw?” On a roll, I opened up another. It read, “Every excess becomes a vice.”

Darn you. Let’s try that again……


Okay- aside from gambling with fortune cookies, there was a reason for my previous excitement. Mean Mommy University is growing! Because of this, I have asked another writer to jump on board and join the faculty.

This was, since the beginning, my original goal. I wanted to create a site where women could go and relate with other women’s experiences. Our goal: To find the humor in everyday life whether it is raising kids, being a wife, or just living EVERY darn day as a girl. (Sometimes, the forces of the media are against us) So thank you for tuning in, leaving comments—whether we know you or not, it doesn’t matter—this university is universal. (Creative writing there, huh?) But, it helps us know if you like what we’re doing. Thank you for telling friends and passing on the site—it encourages us to keep finding things that hopefully make you laugh.

Even if it is morbid humor—yeehaw! (I assure you, I did not say this out loud)

So, with that being said, I want to introduce to you Jordan Smith. She is extremely talented and meeting her in person is even better, because she has your sides splitting from laughing so hard. I will be updating the profile page so that you can learn more about her. I have invited her to post this week. She has written about her past adoration for She-Ra. (She-Ra was one of my all-time favs. I am so giddy to know I wasn’t the only one who was obsessed with her too.)

Anyway, thank you again, and enjoy!

Camryn





I watched in awe as Adora (pre-She-Ra) performed gravity-defying flips and kept her secret from some of her closest friends. My stomach would turn in knots when she was in peril, but I knew that with her trusty sword (that was SO-O-O magical that it could turn into ANYTHING. My favorite is still “sword-to-boomerang”.) And her valiant steed Spirit who, just like his leotard-wearing owner-friend, would magically turn into Swift Wind as she majestically said:

By the Power of Grayskull! I Am She-Ra!!!

(And yes, when I was little I thought she and He-Man should totally hook up. It was years later when I found out they were twins. Dang it.)

Forget the pretending, I was She-Ra. I would jump off the mini tramp really high and pretend I was doing some gracefully suspended-in-time front flip and land with a grunt as if it to say, “That was mighty tricky”.

My father made me a sword out of wood and spray painted it gold.

I Was She-Ra.

So when I opened my Christmas present a few years ago and saw the COMPLETE FIRST SEASON VOLUME ONE DVD BOX SET I was obnoxiously ecstatic.

And I was just as obnoxious when my hubby gave me VOLUME TWO. I won’t tell you that I got somewhat choked up as visions of my childhood escapades danced in my head. There may have been moistening of the eyes--But that’s not important.

What is important is that I was going to MAKE my son sit down with me and watch them. There was a bad guy (Hordak) with an army of robots at his disposal. That’s pretty manly. There were creatures that should be fascinating to anyone under the age of 9.

I determinedly thought, “He will love this and WE WILL BOND.”

Well, he did watch a little. Actually he watched them pretty often. The whole robot thing spoke to his tender boy brain. (Ahhh...) And the level of 80’s one-liners and slapstick helped. I was overcome with a feeling of love and joy for being able to share something I loved with him.

And then my husband came into the picture. So did the 80’s cartoon, Transformers. He saw my joy and wanted some of his own. So he found the original cartoons on the internet...

Is it possible to buy illegal copies without knowing it???? This lovely set SEEMED to be not-the-real-thing with its Xerox cover and smudges-when-wet ink printed on the DVDs. Mortified, I went to the actual non-eBay web site, and read the lovely disclaimer that hadn’t been there before. It reads:

'All titles are assumed to be in public domain, and will be removed upon request. Sold & traded on a collector to collector basis, with no rights known, implied, or given.'

That makes me sleep better at night.

So my son is now introduced to Transformers. Ask me how many times he’s watched She-Ra since then.

Go ahead.

But have no fear! We were blessed with an adorable baby girl.
She will Love She-Ra.

I was beside myself when her favorite animal became a horse. Yay! She-Ra has a horse! At the appropriate age of not quite 2, I introduced her to She-Ra. And you know what?
She knows the 80’s series theme song of The Transformers. And sings it.
She hums Skorpinok’s theme song from the latest movie with gusto.
She plays with her brother’s Transformers.
She will sit down with her brother and watch Transformers...

She has yet to sit through one episode of She-Ra.

I tell myself that she doesn’t watch it because she sees enough of The Princess of Power in action everyday at home, because...

I AM She-Ra.